4 O'Clock Vinyl

Miles Davis may have given us The Birth Of Cool, but there's a rebirth of cool going on, and it's coming back at 33 1/3 rotations per minute.

105.5 Triple M presents 4 O'Clock Vinyl, brought to you by your friends at Colectivo Coffee, with Cafes on the Square and Monroe Street. Each weekday at 4:00pm, we're presenting a song that you'll already find familiar to the Triple M Music Library. These songs will include World Class Rock from current releases to the classics, all recorded on vinyl.

We're also presenting it live, where our DJ will drop the crooked arm of our turntable, and let our stylus find the groove.

This isn't a rebellion from the compression and lo-fidelity you'l hear coming out of the earbuds of so many .mp3 players. It's a celebration of how good music can really sound.

Check our Facebook Page for which cut you'll hear each day, and then sit back and enjoy.

Why Vinyl Now?

According to recent sales figures, vinyl record album sales in the United States jumped 17.7 percent to almost 4.55 million units. At the same time, CD sales continued to decline, dropping 13.5 percent from 2011 to 193.4 million units. Digital downloads continue to grow and now represent 37% of all music sales.

On the hardware end, the number of companies manufacturing turntables, tonearms, cartridges, phono stages, and accessories has never been higher.

Experts in the industry believe that people are awakening to the fact that .mp3s are not the most enjoyable listening experience. “Vinyl has always been cool.” “Turntables have always been industrial art…when was the last time anyone ever walked into your living room, pointed to your iPhone and begged you to play it?” Mat Weisfeld, of VPI Industries Source: Digitaltrends.com

Can You Find New Music On Vinyl?

Of course, many artists release their new albums on vinyl, sometimes previous to the digital or CD release. They also may release special or limited editions of their songs or albums that are available on vinyl only. This growth is also tracked through the continuing and growing trend of Record Store Day.

Does Vinyl Sound Better Than CD's or Other Digital Recordings?

Short answer: Yes. True audiophiles know this to be a factual truth. Don't ever argue this point with me again.

Long answer: According to Red Book specifications, the Compact Disc has a frequency response of 20 Hz up to 22,050 Hz, and most CD players measure flat within a fraction of a decibel from at least 20 Hz to 20 kHz at full output. Turntable rumble obscures the low-end limit of vinyl but the upper end can be, with some cartridges, reasonably flat within a few decibels to 30 kHz, with gentle roll-off. Carrier signals of Quad LPs popular in the 1970s were at 30 kHz to be out of the range of human hearing. The average human auditory system is sensitive to frequencies from 20 Hz to a maximum of around 20,000 Hz. So, we're going to call this a wash. Source: Wikipedia.com

How Do They Make Vinyl, Is It Magic?

Yes, it is magic. That, and some good old fashioned science. Let's ask the good people at How It's Made.

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